This edition we have the premier of Kinect Star Wars (finally), the celebrity hosts at Star Wars Weekends and some Celebration VII news.
Well the day finally arrived this week when Kinect Star Wars was finally released to the public after a year or so of speculation and ridicule, along with the much awaited Xbox 360 Kinect Star Wars Bundle, which includes the R2-D2 like console and the C-3PO controller, a must for any collector. As to the game itself, well it suffers from what we had heard and experienced in the preview, which is a sort of unresponsive light saber that only seems to know two moves, up and down and left and right. It is not as fluent as you would think the saber would be. I guess that was to keep it sort of “on the rails” as it were and make it easier for kids to play. The rest of it seemed alright controller wise, and oddly enough, the dancing seemed to be the most responsive. That is probably because the Kinect is so good at that sort of motion and the routines for that are already pretty advanced. The pod racing was cool, but the bulk of the story relates to the light saber battles, which kind of makes it a bit of a disappointment, but fans will still have a chance to have some good heart thumping, muscle tiring fun.
Ashley Eckstein and James Arnold Taylor, who play Ahsoka Tano and Obi-Wan Kenobi (respectively) in Star Wars: The Clone Wars will serve as hosts for all the fun at the Star Wars Weekends at Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida, which is part of Disney World. They will be there each weekend for the event that runs on four consecutive weekends in May and June. This year it will be May 18-20, 25-27 and June 1-3, 8-10. Having been many times, I have to say that the festival celebrating George Lucas’ Universe is more fun that shooting wamprats back home. While the actual guest stars haven’t yet been announced, past participants have included Peter Mayhew, Carrie Fisher, David Prowse, Anthony Daniels and others. Even Luke himself, Mark Hamill, has appeared. Star Wars Weekends are included in the daily admission for the parks on those days, so if you already have tickets, there is nothing special you need to purchase. But you will want to show up early if you want to get an autograph to get in on the action and to get your FastPass for autographs. And don’t forget to check out Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, the newest version of the popular ride, where there is 50+ variations.
Speaking of Orlando, also this year is the Celebration VII that will be at the Orange County Convention Center on August 23-26, 2012. Considered to be one of the biggest Star Wars related parties in the galaxy, and in the world, this four day celebration features guests, activities and more. Hosting this year will be again James Arnold Taylor, David Collins (voice actor/director/musician), Peter Hildago (author and LucasFilm’s resident Star Wars expert) and Chris Hardwick, founder of Nerdist. While more guests are sure to be announced, so far only Dave Filoni, director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is confirmed, but that is sure to change as we get closer to the date. And we’ll have a bit more about what you can expect at the celebration.
And that’s just some of the new from the galaxy for this edition. Thanks for reading…
